Customarily wives brought their husbands a substantial dowry, which the husband managed as another family resource. In fact, however, husbands were not free to do as they wished. If nothing else, they faced the powerful obligation to return the dowry and other uxorial property at the end of the marriage (generally by death of a spouse). They could even see a wife claim back her dowry during marriage on the grounds of mismanagement by the husband. The shared economy of the household could fracture, although a wife's claim might also have precluded claims and loss of property to outsiders. The legal problems were evident, and jurists were largely intent on protecting spousal rights.

The sharing economy and the legal devices clustered about it became increasingly distinct from ownership vested in one person, which would be at the heart of the sense of property developed in modern law, beginning in the Enlightenment. Overlapping rights were too confusing and liable to keep property from transactions in the increasingly important market economy. The continuity between father and son that Bartolus saw at the heart of the family became harder for others to envision.